Founder and Managing Director of Black Opal Ventures, Eileen Tanghal, gave the keynote address at MIT’s Microsystems Annual Research Conference earlier this year in Mount Washington.
The MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Microsystems Annual Research Conference (MARC) brings together MIT students and staff, industry leaders, and researchers. The event looks to "celebrate the scientific and technical achievements of the past year, to revisit and redefine our roles as researchers in ever-shifting sociopolitical contexts, and to acknowledge the precious and resilient community that we have built and maintained together.” This year’s event featured discussion on changes to the microsystem landscape, quantum technologies, power, and much more.
Eileen Tanghal, Managing Director and Co-Founder of Black Opal Ventures, gave this year’s opening keynote address entitled “Engineer, VC, Mother, Spy- A journey towards investing for the greater good.” In her address, she reflected on her time at MIT and journey from early-phase companies to Applied Materials to founding the Coder School to In-Q-Tel. She told the audience, “find your nerd posse,” as she founded Black Opal Ventures with Dr. Tara Bishop, a classmate and friend from her time at MIT. She urged students to take risks and bring their knowledge of automation to other fields, like healthcare.
After Eileen’s keynote, she sat down for a fireside chat, where she discussed the importance of diverse leadership teams, scaling products, and balancing optimization and accessibility in healthcare.
The MIT Microsystems Annual Research Conference (MARC) is an event organized by the Microsystems Technology Laboratories (MTL) and MIT.nano. Black Opal Ventures aims to improve health outcomes for all by investing in companies at the collision of healthcare and technology.